O trabalho colaborativo mediado pela internet em turma de alunos do 4º ano do ensino fundamental

Abstract

This paper aims at reflecting on the collaborative work in an educational context of a class of students at the fourth grade of Elementary Education in a school located in the city of Santa Maria de Jetibá/Espírito Santo Federal State/Brazil. Our intention is to answer the following question: How does collaborative work mediated through the internet in a class of fourth graders of Elementary School occur? In order to do so, we deepen our reflections on the theoretical and methodological discussions that contribute to the basis of the key-concepts which have guided this paper, such as: work and education (FLUSSER, 1985; VIGOTSKY, 2001; ANTUNES, 2012; LIMA, 2013), cultural constitution of the child (VEER& VALSINER, 1996; VIGOTSKY, 2001; PINO, 2005), collaborative work (FREIRE, 1987; BURTON, BRNA & PILKINGTON, 2000; BRANDÃO, 2003; RAMOS, 2006; TELES & IBIAPINA, 2009), technologies (LE GOFF, 2003; CASTELLS, 2006; FREITAS, 2011) and so on. We have used the qualitative approach as a methodological basis for this study and carried out a small intervention in which we produce, along with the children-subjects of this research, the data that was analyzed in light of the conceptual basis of this paper. With that goal, this study accomplished a visit to a museum and each constituted groups of students collaboratively created blogs. The computer and the internet were the mediators of the collaborative work. The groups, which did not master the functionalities of the tools, had difficulties in doing the activities. The difficulties established a field for discussion and decision-making, which were constituted as cultural means and, at the same time, material and symbolic instruments of the research. The results of this investigation indicate collaboration as a practice that is produced in groups – whose main secret was negotiation – that postulated agreements and dialogs as well as moments of discontentment and frustration. The collaborations that became clear during the interlocutions between students in the study were quite fragile. The collaborative practices were conditioned to the type of group in which students were and the switch of pairs influenced the agreements and negotiations between the subjects. The research enabled the experience of partition and knowledge out of the participation and collaborative work, mediated by tools and signs within the context of New Communication Technologies.